SkullThrone
First Post
I like minions, but sometimes you just want to have large battles out there...and if you put over 10 creatures on the map everyone thinks "Minions"...but even Minions need separate attacks to resolve them, and when they are packed into close quarters players begin to meta game.
I found a good way around this is the idea of a Squad...small-sized creatures can have squads of up 8 members, medium-sized up to 6 and large creatures up to 4. I haven't really finalized the stats on these, but plan to formally write up an article on this, but thinking something like this:
Squads are essentially "linked" models, they are always in Base to Base contact. DM's can break a Squad, or players can my severing base-2-base contact. So by "sliding" two members of an 6 unit orc squad they become a 4 unit squad and a 2 unit squad. So long as a squad has b2b contact with it's other members it acts as if all members of the Squad are attacking as the same time...only one dice is rolled for the squad.
I'd thinking small-sized squads have 5+1/lv hps per member, medium have 10+2/lv per member, and large have 15+3/lv. They also recieve a +1 to-hit for small-size, +2 for medium-sized, and +3 per member for large sized. Damage is d4 (small), d6(med) and d8 (large).
So if the party is faced with two squads of five orcs they each going after a different party member the initial attacks would be (assume base creature was an Orc Freak, but I don't want to publish all the stats on that here)...initial Attack bonus is halved then apply the Squad adj (+6/2 then add +2/member, equals +13 Attack), Damage is d6/per + half the base creature (so 5/2 + 5 x d6, equals 5d6+2.
When the squad is attacked, all the Defenses of a Squad are -1 per member, and using the Orc Freak Squad for each 12hps of Damage one member is lost. Area of Affect spells gain a x2 on damage, so long as at least half the squad is in the effect, but the attacks roll is only made once at the squad. Damage dealt is done to the entire squad and attack such a Cleave do gain their bonus damage, since their is technically another creature to Cleave into.
So if a +1 Vicious Great Axe wielding Fighter Crits a Squad on a cleave and does 36 Damage, they would essentially kill 3 members of the Squad (most often removed from the back, assuming they want to fill-in, but this is up to the DM).
On the other hand a Dragonborn Warlock assumes minions runs up breathes on the other Squad affecting all five members, only rolls one attack (not the expected 5) but deals 7 damage, which is doubled because the effect hit over half the squad, only 1 of the squad is removed.
I'm still formalizing the details, but that should provide a good idea of what I'm thinking of...any thoughts?
I found a good way around this is the idea of a Squad...small-sized creatures can have squads of up 8 members, medium-sized up to 6 and large creatures up to 4. I haven't really finalized the stats on these, but plan to formally write up an article on this, but thinking something like this:
Squads are essentially "linked" models, they are always in Base to Base contact. DM's can break a Squad, or players can my severing base-2-base contact. So by "sliding" two members of an 6 unit orc squad they become a 4 unit squad and a 2 unit squad. So long as a squad has b2b contact with it's other members it acts as if all members of the Squad are attacking as the same time...only one dice is rolled for the squad.
I'd thinking small-sized squads have 5+1/lv hps per member, medium have 10+2/lv per member, and large have 15+3/lv. They also recieve a +1 to-hit for small-size, +2 for medium-sized, and +3 per member for large sized. Damage is d4 (small), d6(med) and d8 (large).
So if the party is faced with two squads of five orcs they each going after a different party member the initial attacks would be (assume base creature was an Orc Freak, but I don't want to publish all the stats on that here)...initial Attack bonus is halved then apply the Squad adj (+6/2 then add +2/member, equals +13 Attack), Damage is d6/per + half the base creature (so 5/2 + 5 x d6, equals 5d6+2.
When the squad is attacked, all the Defenses of a Squad are -1 per member, and using the Orc Freak Squad for each 12hps of Damage one member is lost. Area of Affect spells gain a x2 on damage, so long as at least half the squad is in the effect, but the attacks roll is only made once at the squad. Damage dealt is done to the entire squad and attack such a Cleave do gain their bonus damage, since their is technically another creature to Cleave into.
So if a +1 Vicious Great Axe wielding Fighter Crits a Squad on a cleave and does 36 Damage, they would essentially kill 3 members of the Squad (most often removed from the back, assuming they want to fill-in, but this is up to the DM).
On the other hand a Dragonborn Warlock assumes minions runs up breathes on the other Squad affecting all five members, only rolls one attack (not the expected 5) but deals 7 damage, which is doubled because the effect hit over half the squad, only 1 of the squad is removed.
I'm still formalizing the details, but that should provide a good idea of what I'm thinking of...any thoughts?
